Pro-lifers warned months ago that bias exists in the Harris County, Texas District Attorney’s office, and that seems to have been the case.
The office employs a prosecutor who is a board member of the Planned Parenthood affiliate that was exposed in the baby-parts videos secretly recorded by the activists.
Instead of indicting Planned Parenthood executives for apparently offering to trade baby-parts, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson persuaded the grand jury to indict the producer of the videos, David Daleiden.
Prosecutor Lauren Reeder serves on the board of a group that is under criminal investigation, but pro-lifers connected to Operation Rescue, who also assisted in the making of the baby part videos, charge the office’s handling of a previous abortion-related case demonstrates a serious problem in the office.
The previous grand jury investigation looked into abortionist Douglas Karpen who was accused of twisting the necks and killing babies who survived abortions in his clinic. These charges were particularly explosive in light of the recent conviction of Kermit Gosnell who had also been convicted of killing babies born alive.
Operation Rescue had provided evidence of Karpen’s wrongdoing in the form of photos and witnesses. When the grand jury failed to indict Karpen, Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, who also had a hand in the Daleiden baby parts videos, accused the prosecutor’s office of not providing the grand jury with all the evidence. Newman also charged Harris County DA Devon Anderson with having a too-close personal relationship with Karpen’s attorney Chip Lewis.
Based on the presence of a Planned Parenthood board member in Anderson’s office, and the failure to indict in the Karpen case, Newman and other pro-lifers asked the Texas governor to appoint a special prosecutor for the investigation into the sale of aborted baby-parts. The governor did not act.
With the failure to indict Planned Parenthood for the baby-parts video and the indictment instead of David Daleiden, it appears that Operation Rescue’s worst-case scenario has come true.
District Attorney Anderson has denied that the presence of a Planned Parenthood board member on her staff would have any effect on the outcome of the investigation.
Follow Austin Ruse on Twitter @austinruse